Oscar Pettiford Nonet | Big Band | Sextet 1955 - 1958

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Maybe that's Gene Quill sounding like that?

I'll listen again, but a) I'm going by the booklet notes, and b) I know what Quill sounds like, and it didn't sound like him. This soloist was almost as much on the "polite" side as Gryce usually is but looser rhythmically. 

P.S. Just for fun, check out Quill's hellacious solo on Johnny Richard's "Cimmaron." From the Capitol album "Wide Range," it's on the Mosaic Select Richard's set. (It's not from the album ID'ed below, though that's a good one.) The trombone chase on "Cimmaron," with the same three "bones," is fun, too. Solo order, IIRC, is Rehak, Cleveland, Dahl.

P.P.S. I know Richards can be pretentious to say the least, but the noble theme of "Cimmaron" has always seemed quite something to me.


 

 

[Larry Kart]

On 6/9/2017 at 0:17 PM, JSngry said:

Listening to this today. It's fun, and in many ways seems quaint by today's standards, not just some of the arrangements, but the whole broadcast presentation. One the whole, I like it much more than the studio equivalents of the same material. Have not looked at the details yet, who played lead trumpet on the first selections?

Also, happy as hell to hear a bit of the Monitor Beacon at the end of one broadcast. I use that as the ringtone on my phone.

 On the first selections -- tracks 1-5 --  the trumpeters are Art Farmer and Joe Wilder; Wilder probably would be playing lead, though IIRC that was not his thing. On the rest of side one the lead player was Ray Copeland. 

The presentation, yes, but I don't find the arrangements "quaint," certainly not Gryce's. What standards of today do you have in mind? Dave Pell charts -- now those would be quaint. 

[JSngry]

Quaint....as in a lot of things aimed at being "common man" friendly, harps French horns, "The Gentle Art Of Love", Jack The Bear!, many, many tempos that could be danceable, some right on the edge but never going over,"modern" without being consciously "forward", but most importantly, quaint in the sense of this size ensemble getting the blends and balances just right for the room, I would think, all by themselves. Good luck getting any of that, in spirit or in execution, out of a big band today.

In this case, I very much like quaint by today's standards. I like hearing bands that don't force it when forcing it is not the object of the game. And I like this kind of jazz to be informed by the dancing impulse, that connection to the physical that happens by instinct, not by design. Foot-tapping music indeed!

As for Gryce vs Quill...the alto soloist on the first session (tracks 1-5) don't sound like Gryce to me.

Oh yeah, the unannounced guy I think might be Quill is actually announced as Quill later on. Not saying that Gryce doesn't sound good, but there's two distinctly different a lot soloists on this band.

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Quaint....as in a lot of things aimed at being "common man" friendly, harps French horns, "The Gentle Art Of Love", Jack The Bear!, many, many tempos that could be danceable, some right on the edge but never going over,"modern" without being consciously "forward", but most importantly, quaint in the sense of this size ensemble getting the blends and balances just right for the room, I would think, all by themselves. Good luck getting any of that, in spirit or in execution, out of a big band today.

In this case, I very much like quaint by today's standards. I like hearing bands that don't force it when forcing it is not the object of the game. And I like this kind of jazz to be informed by the dancing impulse, that connection to the physical that happens by instinct, not by design. Foot-tapping music indeed!

As for Gryce vs Quill...the alto soloist on the first session (tracks 1-5) don't sound like Gryce to me.

Since when is "Jack the Bear" common man friendly? It would have been known only to veteran Ellingtonians, I would think. Also, it was chosen by Pettiford to please himself and to pay tribute to Blanton. The harp, as the notes explain, was a bee in Oscar's bonnet.

Gryce versus Quill -- I'll listen again.

[Larry Kart]

Sure sounds like Gryce to me on the theme statement of "You'd be So Nice To Come Home To." Otherwise, compare the solos on the two side-one versions of "Nica's Tempo."  On the former, it not only sounds like Gryce, porcelain-toned, albeit more fluid at times that one is used to from him (which seems to me to be the case throughout),  but the announcer also names Gryce as a soloist. On the latter, it's clearly Quill -- that characteristic hoarseness of timbre, for one.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Larry Kart said:

Since when is "Jack the Bear" common man friendly? It would have been known only to veteran Ellingtonians, I would think.

Hey, it swings good, wouldn't be out of place on a Dobie Gillis episode, this being 15 or so years after the original.

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Hey, it swings good, wouldn't be out of place on a Dobie Gillis episode, this being 15 or so years after the original.

No doubt "Jack the Bear" was still fresh as a daisy in Pettiford's mind. Further, Jerome Richardson's tenor solo would have left Thalia Menninger flat on her back with her legs up in the air.

[JSngry]

That sounds like bullying to me, not swinging!

Krebsian projections aside, I like this set a lot. It's a fine band playing well, mostly. And it sure does swing!

[Larry Kart]

No -- it sounds like a shortcut to what Thalia probably liked to do best.

BTW, are you as struck as I am by how different Osie Johnson sounds here than he does on all those RCA studio dates he did in those years?

[JSngry]

Hmmm....

About Osie, perhaps...but a club gig and a record date, especially for RCA in those Neo-Basie Craze days...like the man himself said, Don't Bug Me, Hug Me! and by hug me, he might well have meant pay me!

talking about dancing to a hard beat, the Pie Eye sequence in Anatomy Of A Murder, that's how I think "common people" relate to a beat, it it's got that groove, then they will move.

[medjuck]

8 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

No doubt "Jack the Bear" was still fresh as a daisy in Pettiford's mind. Further, Jerome Richardson's tenor solo would have left Thalia Menninger flat on her back with her legs up in the air.dizzy

OP was featured on Jack the Bear during his tenure with Ellington.  It took me a while to digest that he joined Ellington after he had led a band with Dizzy.

[mjzee]

Just finished listening to this.  One thing I found fascinating: there are two performances of a Pettiford composition titled "Battle Axe."  There's a note: "'Battle Axe' is also known as 'Something For You,' 'Chance It,' 'Max Is Making Wax,' 'This Time The Drum's On Me,' and 'Harvest Time.'"